This is surely not your first time coming across those mighty Vikings of health and beauty product lines that vanquish, New Nordic.
Here is one of their latest half page insertions that’s making the rounds in October of 2021.
There are few companies that excel at both product naming and product packaging as well as New Nordic. And there’s no doubt origin marketing also plays a no small role in the company’s success. [Read more…]
The Sumerian invention of cuneiform tablets was in widespread use as far back as 3400 B.C.
Initially, its purpose was for keeping accounts and records of business transactions, but later it developed into a full fledged writing system.
And because human nature has changed little over the millennia, it’s likely a cuneiform tablet or two was devoted to those dreaded “dark circles” women hate. [Read more…]
”The Next Two Years Should Generate More Wealth Than the Previous 20 Combined!
‘If it were anyone else who said it, I would have dismissed this prediction as nonsense.’ — Bill O’Reilly
INSIDE: See how to claim TWO bestsellers WITHOUT paying retail or shipping” [Read more…]
There’s no anonymity or “playing it safe” as a newsletter publisher.
Unlike the pills and potions in the world of health and beauty, but without the massive markets, the newsletter business obligates the publisher to “put it all on the table,” ergo, you can always count on long copy.
This 26-page promo also offers a look into textbook customer ascension offers, something not enough marketeers pay heed to… I know of one busily typing right now. 🙂 [Read more…]
How could any self-respecting ad archivist resist this swipe in a case study that cost an advertiser $300 k?
You’ve likely run into A Little Mistake That Cost a Farmer $3,000 Each Year in Victor Schwab’s classic house ad spread 100 Good Advertising Headlines.
Darn good headline from 1919… and it was darn hard to find!
There’s no excelling upon Victor Schwab’s thumbnail sketch on this classic that… [Read more…]
“How does Dan Kennedy do so many things so well?”
“How does anyone accomplish so much in the span of a few hours?”
“How does Kennedy manage to come up with cracking copy… seemingly every time?”
These are some of the questions I’ve pondered about that prolific marketer, author, educator (and a dozen other things) over the years.
Without a doubt, it’s Kennedy’s direct mail I admire the most. How else do you explain fawning over a direct mail piece from waaay back in 2010? [Read more…]
This 27-year control in both the mail and print wasn’t top dog for lack of competition.
Let’s hear it straight from the copywriter’s mouth.
Malcolm Decker was one of the greats of direct mail copywriting for many decades.
Since there’s no greater tribute to our advertising legends than their ads, here’s a fitting one. [Read more…]
The eye supplements category may not be as prominent as blood sugar, digestion or joint pain but, it’s a bustling market with an endless supply of prospects looking for an edge with dietary supplementation.
This visually impressive magalog for “Ocuten” has a great lead, strong copy, packed proof elements and a hard hitting offer.
Fear plays no minor role in the copy. [Read more…]
This is a textbook “testimonial headline” in the world of book advertising.
Book advertising?
Yes, it will continue to matter well into this new decade because it’s a TRUE test of a an ad writer’s mettle.
As we’ve seen with the late 20th Century copy legend, Mel Martin…
Even rookie writers can be successful selling products along the Money-Power-Love axis.
If you can even half-convince your prospect that your product will give her a greater supply of these, then she’s yours.
But it takes a TRUE talent to write book adverting that PULLS. [Read more…]
Bill Bonner is the undisputed heavyweight champ of enargia in copywriting.
Enargia may not flow off the tip of the tongue, but this word of Greek origin for “vividness,” has a great track record for selling, both in direct mail and in print.
And this rhetorical device has so many notches in its belt for ringing the sales register, it’s a wonder it’s not more widely deployed.
I came across two GREAT ones recently.
The first one is an oldie (a relative term!) from 1977 for Time-Life Books. [Read more…]
Here’s a 2021 spin on a mature market familiar to all of us in direct response — the copywriting game.
With the draconian public health restrictions (at last!) beginning to recede (at least in many parts of the States) it’s time to get back to in person seminars, though this one is virtual in addition.
This promo for “The Ultimate Sales Letter & Ultimate Marketing Plan Mid-Year Event” mailing to past customers in June 0f 2021. It employs the “official direct mail” approach and is replete with the threatening envelope teaser copy: “Forgery of endorsements on checks is a Federal crime. Maximum penalty is a $10,000 fine and ten-year imprisonment.” [Read more…]
Here’s a red blooded trading pitch (from a few administrations ago) that’s a hodgepodge of several successful direct response headlines, sub-heads and product names, including the redoubtable “Little Black Book.”
You’ll notice there’s a good deal of biz-op flavor in many trading pitches and this one is no exception.
It kicks off with a well traveled Ted Nicholas headline from the 1990s for his bestselling: “How to Form a Cooperation Without a Lawyer for Under $75.” [Read more…]
RootBlast has been going strong for three decades and has done the rounds of DRTV, print and direct mail.
These insertions are packed with long copy and plentiful proof elements in the home gardening market. [Read more…]
Here’s an interesting package that mailed ahead of the 2016 US presidential election.
Given the worldwide public health policies, restrictions and mandates — which seemingly mushroom by the day — the timbre of this piece has more than a little resonance in late 2021.
Isn’t it interesting how a single quote can be worked up into a lead? [Read more…]
What a great lead with a WIDE fishing net… ready to pull in almost any reader.
You can certainly see the influence of Paul Michael’s amazingly evergreen, “How You Can Make a Killing in Coins” in this direct mail package.
Few writers can condense so much persuasion, aimed at so many, into a one-page print ad, as Paul Michael did. [Read more…]
Here’s the kind of promotion that helped build Weiss Research’s “Safe Money Report” into the BIGGEST and best known financial newsletter in the world in the mid-2000s.
It was Clayton Makepeace’s copy that single-handedly brought in a legion of new customers with his trademark, “prospect driven” leads.
Imagine what the great man would be turning out today in this upside-down world of 2021 with TRILLIONS of dollars of funny money flying off the Fed’s presses and inflation burning through middle class purchasing power like a wind driven inferno in the Sierra Nevadas. [Read more…]
The Guinness Guide to Cheese is featured in the essential Ogilvy On Advertising.
Yes, this is a brand ad and a damn fine one in the annals of food advertising. The layout with the photos and summaries of the various cheeses make for irresistible reading and of course, all paths lead to Rome… uh, make that Guinness. [Read more…]
Newspaper print was on its way out long before early 2020, but these last 18 months have really expedited the process.
The “80/20 of newspaper print” seems much more like 95/5 since most national advertisers (who happened to largely be supplement sellers) are out of game, at least in print.
And the surviors have only gotten stronger. Take Doctor Sears and his stellar right hand man behind the copy, Jeff McGeary.
These insertions keep right on rolling. [Read more…]
Always pay attention when something mails for 3 SOLID years, like this promo did. It was also BIG in online display.
This advertiser sucked out EVERY last drop of response… thanks to the powerful three-word combination in the headline.
In many similar pitches, the readers start drooping like flies. Not here! [Read more…]
The fabulous LIVE MAINE LOBSTERS print ad got me hungry for some food copy.
What could be better than a Hancock Gourmet Lobster catalog?
Gourmet food promos almost always have great photography (similarly with travel and real estate advertising) but FOOD COPY is often wanting.
Not here. [Read more…]
Recently one day, I stumbled across this remarkable print ad and asked myself the question: “How’d this ad get into my possession?”
Then it hit me.
Surely, this full page ad was no “mere mortal” ad. I reached for the 520-page transcript from the Bencivenga 100 Seminar with hope… and sure enough this ad on page 346 looked right back at me.
Imagine a newspaper reader in 1951 coming across this ad and exclaiming: [Read more…]
This is without a doubt one of the GREAT food membership newsletters that rides along with members’ quarterly product shipments.
And it hails from one of the greatest advertising copywriters ever to pick up a pen. [Read more…]
It’s amazing what an average marketer… with a middle of the road product can do… with the MAGIC of origin marketing.
Disclaimer!
The magalog at the left is no also ran. It mailed from coast to coast for many years and it’s a textbook example of origin marketing.
What’s “origin marketing?” [Read more…]
Here’s another DM package from the sweet spot of business development and self-help.
The old school of direct mail marketing is exemplified with the ever present: [Read more…]
It’s funny.
I recall getting this direct mail sales letter from Clayton Makpeace, like it was last month. But even this boomer brain recognizes it was way back in 2007.
What a GOLDEN era for copy! [Read more…]